A Glencore-Xstrata merger would create a true rival to global mining heavyweights like Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, as well as put pressure on midsize players to either team up or grow through acquisitions.

The average prices of used cars are on track to rise 1.8% in 2012, with much of that increase expected in the second half of the year. It will mark the third-consecutive year that prices—already running at or near record highs—have risen.

Disney and John Lasseter hope to boost the U.S. box-office punch of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese company behind 'Spirited Away' and other award-winning movies, with "The Secret World of Arrietty," based on "The Borrowers."

The French government and two state-controlled entities are in the home stretch to create a new municipal lender from the remains of troubled Franco-Belgian bank Dexia SA, but they have yet to agree on the price of a key asset, the fate of hundreds of employees, and the exact missions of the future company.

State-run entities that expanded over the past decade to provide affordable homeowners insurance in hurricane-threatened Florida are in danger of becoming so big they threaten to wreak havoc on the local economy.

A deal with a German meteorology institute to sponsor a weather system backfired on BMW's Mini brand, after the "Cooper" cold front brought arctic temperatures, icy winds and dozens of deaths to much of Europe.

A financial turnaround at Las Vegas Sands Corp. is beginning to pay off for chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, who during the financial crisis put $1 billion of his own money into the struggling casino operator.

India's Kingfisher Airlines shelved plans to join Oneworld, the second loss to the global marketing alliance in a week. The move capped a tough period for the alliances that have come to dominate the industry.